Idaho

Idaho estates are heard in the magistrate division of the District Court in the county where
the deceased lived. Idaho has adopted the Uniform Probate Code, and the routes follow it:
informal probate decided on the paperwork by the registrar, formal probate before a
magistrate where something is disputed or unclear, and unsupervised administration by default
once the personal representative is appointed.

Community property

Idaho is a community property state. Property acquired during the marriage is generally owned
half by each spouse, so the surviving spouse already owns their half and the estate is often half
the size the family expects.

Idaho also allows community property with right of survivorship, which passes to the survivor
outside probate entirely, and recognises quasi-community property — property acquired while
living in a common law state that would have been community property had the couple been in Idaho.
That last concept matters here, because so many Idaho residents moved from somewhere else.

Smaller estates

Where the estate qualifies, a small estate affidavit collects personal property with no court
involvement, a set period after death. Ask before opening a case — many Idaho estates never need
one.

No state death tax

Idaho levies neither an estate nor an inheritance tax. Only the federal return can arise.

What still has to happen

Notice to creditors, an inventory to the interested persons, payment of debts and the final income
tax returns, then distribution and a closing statement. Creditor claims are barred after the
statutory period — publish promptly, because that clock protects the estate.

An Idaho will must be in writing, signed by the testator (or by another in the testator's
conscious presence and at their direction), and signed by at least two witnesses. The testator
must be 18 or older, or emancipated, and of sound mind.

Holographic wills are valid

Under Idaho Code § 15-2-503, a will that does not meet the witnessing requirements is
nonetheless valid as a holographic will, whether or not witnessed, if the signature and the
material provisions are in the handwriting of the testator. The rest of the document can be
printed.

Idaho does not require the holographic will to be dated. Date it anyway — an undated
handwritten will is precisely the document that starts an argument about which version came last,
and Idaho offers no help resolving it.

Community property is what the will actually reaches

A will disposes of the deceased's separate property and their half of the community property,
no more. Couples who assume otherwise routinely draft wills that do not do what they intend.

If you moved to Idaho from a common law state, ask specifically about quasi-community
property — assets you brought with you may be treated as community property at death even though
they were not when you acquired them. It is a genuine surprise for new arrivals and it changes who
gets what.

Also

• Name an alternate personal representative and ask for unsupervised administration without
  bond.
• Attach a self-proving affidavit before a notary.
• Idaho permits a transfer on death deed for real estate, which passes a property outside
  probate.
• A surviving spouse's community property interest exists whatever the will says.
• Review after a marriage, divorce, birth or a move to Idaho.

Yes. An Idaho personal representative is entitled to reasonable compensation for services
performed. Idaho prescribes no percentage.

What "reasonable" turns on

The size and nature of the estate, the time actually required, the complexity and difficulty of
the work, the skill and any special expertise it demanded, the responsibility assumed, and the
results achieved.

Records decide it

Without a statutory schedule, contemporaneous time records are the whole argument. Dated
entries showing what was done and how long it took, from the first week. A representative who
proposes a percentage and cannot evidence the work is poorly placed if anyone objects.

Unsupervised means unreviewed, not approved

Under Idaho's default unsupervised administration nobody examines the fee as it is taken. Any
interested person may petition the court afterwards, and the burden of justifying the amount sits
with the representative. Agree it in writing with the beneficiaries before taking it.

If the will fixes the figure

A will provision governs. Under the UPC framework the representative may also renounce the
will's provision before qualifying and take reasonable compensation instead.

Community property affects the base

Only the deceased's half of the community property is in the estate. A fee proposed as a
percentage of everything the couple owned, rather than of what the estate actually holds, will be
roughly double what it should be. It is an easy mistake and an awkward one to explain.

Tax

Compensation is taxable income; an inheritance is not. With no Idaho estate or inheritance tax
for a fee to be deducted against, a family representative who is also a beneficiary usually gains
nothing by taking one. Ask an accountant before deciding.

An Idaho personal representative is reimbursed from the estate for the reasonable expenses of
administration, separately from compensation for their time.

Normally claimable

• Funeral, burial or cremation, the headstone, and a reasonable reception.
• Court filing fees, certified letters, certified death certificates, and publication of the
  notice to creditors.
• Attorney's fees, and accountant's fees for the final Form 1040 and any Form 1041.
• Appraisals of real property, farmland, water rights, grazing permits, timber, vehicles,
  firearms and collections. Water rights and federal grazing permits both need specialist handling
  and are easy to overlook entirely.
• On a farm, the genuine costs of carrying the operation through a season — irrigation, inputs,
  custom work, storage — where continuing serves the estate.
• Carrying costs on estate property until sale: insurance, property tax, utilities, security,
  maintenance, landscaping and snow removal.
• Winterising a property at altitude, and wildfire mitigation and defensible-space clearing
  on forested or wildland-interface property. Both are preservation costs, not improvements.
• Cleaning, clearing, storing, moving and shipping contents, including a cabin.
• Travel on estate business at a reasonable rate — Idaho distances are long and the terrain makes
  them longer.
• Bond premiums where bond was not waived.

Normally not claimable

• The representative's lost wages, meals near home, or personal spending.
• Costs run up for one beneficiary's convenience rather than the estate's.
• Improvements beyond preparing a property for sale as it stands.
• Anything without a receipt.

The rule that decides it

Open an estate bank account and run everything through it. Under unsupervised administration
your own ledger is the only account anyone will ever see.

Idaho's informal probate and unsupervised default mean most estates here are manageable for a
family member with a lawyer's help. A bank trust department or an attorney serving as personal
representative earns its cost in narrower cases.

Consider a professional when

• The estate holds water rights, grazing permits, farmland or timber. Idaho water law is its
  own discipline, a water right is frequently the most valuable and least understood asset in a
  rural estate, and federal grazing permits do not transfer like ordinary property.
• Community property characterisation is unclear — and in Idaho add quasi-community
  property to that. A couple who moved here from a common law state and commingled assets over
  decades present a genuinely difficult problem, and getting the half-and-half line wrong misstates
  the whole estate.
• The estate holds an operating business, rental or short-term-let property, including near a
  resort.
• There is conflict among the beneficiaries, or a will contest looks likely — which moves the
  estate from informal to formal proceedings.
• The will is holographic and undated, and more than one version exists.
• A beneficiary is a minor or incapacitated, so a trust runs for years.
• The named representative lives out of state and cannot deal with property that needs physical
  attention through the winter.

What it costs

Corporate fiduciaries charge a negotiated percentage with a minimum annual fee. Attorneys
generally bill hourly. Because Idaho prescribes no percentage, ask precisely what the basis will
be, in writing.

Middle ground

Appoint a family member, ask for unsupervised administration without bond, and let them retain
an Idaho attorney at the estate's expense — plus a specialist to value water rights or permits
properly rather than a general fiduciary.

A named representative who does not want the job can decline before appointment.